New York Racing Association's Shame

Considering that horseracing is the trainers (who
act on behalf of the owners), vets, and regulators, how can this sport be
seen as anything other than morally-bankrupt? Enough already.

Back in the spring, Governor Cuomo’s office ordered the New York Racing
Association (NYRA) to convene an independent panel to investigate a spate of
racing fatalities at Aqueduct’s 2012 winter meet. Ultimately, the New York
State Racing and Wagering Board (RWB) appointed a 4-member “Task Force On
Racehorse Health and Safety,” which included two equine vets, a Hall of Fame
jockey, and a racing attorney. The Task Force found, surprise, that “there
may have been opportunities to prevent 11 of the 21 fatalities” (there were
actually 30 Aqueduct deaths from mid-November to mid-April). Summarizing the
findings, Howard Glaser, Cuomo’s director of state operations, says (The New
York Times, 9/28/12), “At the New York Racing Association, concern for the
health of the horses finished a distant second to economics.” Here are the
report’s highlights:

Lack of transparency and disclosure: There were no complete necropsies
for any of the fatally injured horses. In addition, there were no urine
samples collected and only limited blood testing, leaving the question of
illegal doping open. And although rules are in place for when and how much
drugging is allowed, trainers are failing to report injections, and the RWB
is failing to monitor compliance. Also, there is virtually no disclosure of
drugging from seller to buyer in claim sales, so redundant medicating is
likely. Furthermore, racing’s ubiquitous corticosteroids often mask
breakdown-causing injuries or preexisting conditions (graphic photo of
screws that held a horse’s leg together), making the track vet’s job all the
more difficult. And lastly, there are discrepancies between the trainers’
description of veterinary care and the practicing vets’ actual records,
which, by the way, are not required to disclose dose information, and
justification for treatment is being inconsistently reported.

Conflict of interests: All regulatory veterinary responsibilities are
performed by NYRA veterinarians who answer directly to NYRA racing
officials; these officials, not the stewards, execute scratches, and racing
officials do not like scratches. In addition, “written protocols containing
standards and practices were not provided to the NYRA veterinarians,”
leading to inconsistent pre-race procedures and scratch criteria. Worse, the
dollar-driven, mind-your-own-business culture discourages whistleblowing:
Trainers are unlikely to tattle on other trainers, and jockeys, who are
especially sensitive to the horse’s physical state, are disinclined to
object at the gate for fear of losing future gigs.

Disproportionate purses in claiming races: The Resorts World Racino,
which opened this past season, resulted in artificially inflated purses in
the claiming races that predominate at Aqueduct. The extraordinarily high
purse-to-claim ratios (up to 5.3) “incentivized poor decision-making by a
range of stakeholders that increased the risk for mismanagement and
subsequent injury.” In short, racing cheap, broken horses for jacked up
purses makes for an enticing risk-reward, the horses’ lives be damned.

So, let’s see if I have this straight: The owners, buying and selling at
a frenzied and historic rate, are chasing racino cash with second-rate,
expendable assets, many of whom have no business physically being on the
track; the trainers, operating in a highly competitive environment where
everyone else is doing it (e.g., clenbuterol), are either skirting or
outright flouting existing drug rules, often with a wink and a nod from
private veterinarians who disdain answering to bureaucrats on medical
matters; the track vets, made to understand that field size is paramount,
are compromising their professional integrity; and the jockeys are placing
their teammates’ lives at risk, not to mention their own, to protect a
paycheck. And all this under the not-so-watchful eyes of NYRA, the operator
of the three largest Thoroughbred tracks (including Saratoga) in the state,
and the RWB.

After years of steady decline, VLT money has the industry feeling pretty
good lately, so expecting horsemen who are entirely motivated by personal
gain to be overly concerned about a few extra dead horses is naive. The New
York Times says (9/28/12), “The report and the governor’s recommendations
for reform were the strongest alarm yet about a growing national scandal in
which the industry’s economic incentives find trainers, veterinarians and
regulators cutting corners and putting horses at risk.” Considering that
horseracing is the trainers (who act on behalf of the owners), vets, and
regulators, how can this sport be seen as anything other than
morally-bankrupt? Enough already.

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